Hong Kong (SportsNetwork.com) - Sabine Lisicki of Germany and the Czech Republic's Karolina Pliskova won semifinal matches Saturday and will battle for the title at the inaugural Hong Kong Open.
The top-seeded Lisicki battled past Italian veteran Francesca Schiavone with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 victory and the third-seeded Pliskova also went the distance in a 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 triumph over Belgium's Alison Van Uytvanck.
Lisicki will play in a final for the first time since losing to Marion Bartoli in the 2013 Wimbledon title match. Her best previous result this year was a quarterfinal appearance at the All England Club. She was also a third-round loser to Maria Sharapova at the U.S. Open.
Sunday will mark the ninth final for the 31st-ranked German, who will turn 25 years old later this month. She is 3-5 in title matches, last winning a crown at the Texas Tennis Open in August 2011.
Pliskova, meanwhile, is 1-2 all-time in finals. Both losses came earlier this year, as she fell to Ekaterina Makarova in Thailand back in February and lost to Eugenie Bouchard in the French Open tune-up at Nuremburg in May. Her only title came in March 2013 at Kuala Lumpur.
Lisicki is 2-0 against Pliskova, winning both matches earlier this year. She claimed a three-set win in the first round of the Madrid Open in May and captured a straight-set triumph in the second round at Wimbledon.
This week's champion will collect $43,000.
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